Astronomers Discover New Planet Not Orbiting Any Star

Scientists discover a free-range planet with incredible magnetism

Theresa Hayes
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08 August, 2018, 22:45

A brown dwarf is a space object that's too massive to be called a planet, but it's not presenting a nuclear fusion reaction in its core to be dubbed as a star. And according to a recently published study in The Astrophysical Journal, this odd, nomadic world has an incredibly powerful magnetic field that is some 4 million times stronger than Earth's. Its surface seems to be about 825 degrees Celsius, while the Sun's surface reaches the 5,500.

SIMP is 20 light-years from Earth and has a surface temperature of more than 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit.

So what exactly is this rogue object?

The study's findings have been published in the Astrophysical Journal.

They now believe it's a much younger object and its mass is, therefore, smaller than originally thought - meaning it could theoretically be classified as a planet in its own right.

Kao heard those results when she was looking at the newest data from the radio astronomy observatory, which helped the researchers determine the strong magnetic field. It is the radio signature of these auroras that allowed the researchers to detect these objects. Some brown dwarfs have powerful auroras like those seen around the poles of Earth, Jupiter and Saturn caused by the interactions of a planet's magnetic field and the electrically charged solar wind.

"Given its size, this object is just at the edge between a planet and a brown dwarf".